The World Cup Discussion Thread (OOC, Version IV)

[Juvencus]

I'm announcing a temporary name change for the DBC: we'll be known as Bakjer Pjark for the duration (they J is silent...).
Seriously, 3 nations with a J and they all end up in the same group? LOL

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

[Third Asopia]

I'm announcing a temporary name change for the DBC: we'll be known as Bakjer Pjark for the duration (they J is silent...).
Seriously, 3 nations with a J and they all end up in the same group? LOL

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

Derp. Well look at that...

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

I'm announcing a temporary name change for the DBC: we'll be known as Bakjer Pjark for the duration (they J is silent...).
Seriously, 3 nations with a J and they all end up in the same group? LOL

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

Maybe we should be Bakjer Paranjia instead? (2 J's are better than one)

[Third Asopia]

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

Maybe we should be Bakjer Paranjia instead? (2 J's are better than one)

While that could be a good idea, a lot of people are used to calling you Baker Park. But it's your choice anyways.

[Tinhampton]

Maybe we should be Bakjer Paranjia instead? (2 J's are better than one)

While that could be a good idea, a lot of people are used to calling you Baker Park. But it's your choice anyways.

Welcome to NS Sports, where sarcasm is the lingua franca and nobody ever scores tap-ins from three yards out.

[Banija]

I'm announcing a temporary name change for the DBC: we'll be known as Bakjer Pjark for the duration (they J is silent...).
Seriously, 3 nations with a J and they all end up in the same group? LOL

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

"anija"? #DiBradini44In5Letters

I vote for Bakjer Parkanija, personally.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

What's even scarier is that they all have "anija" in common, not just the letter j.

"anija"? #DiBradini44In5Letters

I vote for Bakjer Parkanija, personally.

If Parliament was in session, we'd pass that right through....

[Omerica]

While that could be a good idea, a lot of people are used to calling you Baker Park. But it's your choice anyways.

Welcome to NS Sports, where sarcasm is the lingua franca and nobody ever scores tap-ins from three yards out.

*makes all Omerica’s IAC-6 goals three-yard tap-ins out of spite*

[Third Asopia]

While that could be a good idea, a lot of people are used to calling you Baker Park. But it's your choice anyways.

Welcome to NS Sports, where sarcasm is the lingua franca and nobody ever scores tap-ins from three yards out.

...
Am I supposed to apologise?

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

Welcome to NS Sports, where sarcasm is the lingua franca and nobody ever scores tap-ins from three yards out.

...
Am I supposed to apologise?

don't sweat it.

[Valanora]

Apologies to all in the DBC, had a massive migraine last night and had to rest. MD2 will be taking place tonight, with MD3 taking place tomorrow night.

[Freeport Isles]

Meanwhile, signups for the U18 World Cup are now open.

Hoping to get that started sometime after the DBC finishes up.

Also, is anyone out there considering a bid for WC82 or BoF69? It's been almost two months since the last cycle wrapped up and we still haven't even seen a bid yet.

[Vilita]

It would be an interesting stat that probably wouldn't be terribly difficult to put together based on all the recent analysis on time gaps between cycles, to simply plot the dates of each World Cup Final (and CoH as well) and determine which Nations have spent the most calendar days as "Champion"

[Equestrian States]

It would be an interesting stat that probably wouldn't be terribly difficult to put together based on all the recent analysis on time gaps between cycles, to simply plot the dates of each World Cup Final (and CoH as well) and determine which Nations have spent the most calendar days as "Champion"

Well, the Modern NS Sports History thread would already have all the data you'd need for that going back to WC50 or so. The end dates for all the WCs given there should be whenever the Final was scorinated. Beyond that, you'd have to dip into the Jolt archives, which I assume have the time stamps for the posts.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

Meanwhile, signups for the U18 World Cup are now open.

Hoping to get that started sometime after the DBC finishes up.

Also, is anyone out there considering a bid for WC82 or BoF69? It's been almost two months since the last cycle wrapped up and we still haven't even seen a bid yet.

I thought we were going to wait until after the Olympics at least to have another WC cycle? I know that WC/BoF is the most popular competition, but we pushed two cycles together pretty close to coincide with the RL World Cup. Wouldn't waiting until February get us back on a more normal cycle? (not really opposed to the process, just wondering about burnout).

[Free Republics]

Meanwhile, signups for the U18 World Cup are now open.

Hoping to get that started sometime after the DBC finishes up.

Also, is anyone out there considering a bid for WC82 or BoF69? It's been almost two months since the last cycle wrapped up and we still haven't even seen a bid yet.

I thought we were going to wait until after the Olympics at least to have another WC cycle? I know that WC/BoF is the most popular competition, but we pushed two cycles together pretty close to coincide with the RL World Cup. Wouldn't waiting until February get us back on a more normal cycle? (not really opposed to the process, just wondering about burnout).

If there was a host bid today, there is zero chance that the BoF would start before the end of the Olympics and I wouldn't say the last 2 cycles were faster than normal either (that was the intent but events outside of the control of both WC host teams ended up with both of those WCs starting weeks later than expected).

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

Fair enough. I guess I'm having time lapse stupidity b/c I'm involved in more than things now than I was 6 months ago.

[Tinhampton]

you can expect decreased activity levels from yours truly for the next six months

Actually, scratch that. You can expect zero activity from myself for the next few months. Until then, for those of you who will be hanging on for the first half of Y2K19, see you around and I hope you do yourself proud in some way or form.

[Banija]

Always knew Group C would be a tight group, but even I didn't think it'd come down to the flip of a coin.

Anyways, you better make sure CBP or MYT wins it all good luck to everyone left in the DBCs!

[Northwest Kalactin]

So much has happened since I left in August hello friends

[Audioslavia]

We just had a two-cycle calendar year for the first time in history. February 14th to June 7th for WC80 and June 24th to October 17th for WC71

Are we cool with this? Y/N?

If not, and we'd rather go back to the 3/4 cycles per year system, then users need to accept that, as the process takes a couple of months to complete (from the signup thread opening to the World Cup Final being played) that the signups to a World Cup will open a couple of weeks after the previous World Cup has been concluded. We always did it quicker than this in the past and we always had time for regional football tournaments, domestic football and other sporting events in the past too.

If we *are* cool with just two cycles per year, then we need to think about whether it's fair to maintain the current levels of churn in the rankings. We've always said that it takes three or four cycles for a team to go from unranked minnows to the upper echelons of international football. Are we fine with telling newbies to stick it out for two years? Other annual or bi-annual competitions, like the NS's versions of the Olympics and F1, don't have ranking systems that carry over from one tournament to the next.

In unrelated graph news, the NS World Cup continues to receive a popularity bump in RL World Cup years.

[Savojarna]

I don't think that having no rankings at all would be in any way a good idea. I see the argument for new players, but first of all I think that there also is a charm in fighting the top teams (and knowing who they are), and secondly I think that having some reliable idea of who are favourites, who are not, and who would be likely to win is quite beneficial to RP. I'd even go as far as include some link between regional competitions, as a team doing well in a regional comp on a regular basis should also be doing well on the world level.

Anyway, regardless of how the rankings work, I'd prefer 3-4 cycles a year. For people like me who basically only do NS Sports, there is actually a tendency to lose interest in between competitions, which is also not desirable.

[Apox]

Right well then. Anyone interested in bidding for a "Vilitan style" four nation WC with me? Can't remember if it's been done since it was successfully done in WC73.

Available to be contacted over TG or Discord

[Nephara]

I'm in the 3 per year camp - 4 is a little hard to reconcile with UICA, unless we wind up with just a 1:1 ratio. Which... would be wild, but at least work consistently. As for the rankings, though the wonderful phrase about turkeys never voting for Christmas comes to mind, I'd be dead-set against ever removing rankings altogether. I wouldn't be against making them more fluid if we don't pick up the pace, though my preferred method would just be to weight RP more.

[South Covello]

I'd be fine with either three or four as well, but I think two is too few. And like Neph said, I'd be against removing rankings. It adds to the fun. And on the rare chance a new user does manage to pull off a bunch of upsets and make the World Cup (Drawkland is the only recent one that comes to mind*) it makes it all the more special. But yeah, make RP count for more.

*- I'm not counting Krytenia and Bonesea, who also qualified as unranked recently, since they were a returning nation and a new nation from a returning user, respectively.